La giustizia è donna

During the Edo period, ghost stories flourished. These stories are particularly interesting for jurists analysing the Tokugawa legal system through the lens of popular culture. This article examines one of these stories: the tale of a servant who is killed by the hands of an unjust lord and returns as a ghost constitutes a faithful depiction of the tension between law and justice under the Tokugawa. The story shows, albeit indirectly, how the legal system was unable to provide justice for the lower strata of the population. Finally, the ghost itself plays a distinctive and important role in the collective imaginary as an agent of justice in the Edo period.